The Bridegroomes comming
As he that sees a starre fall, runs apace,And findes a gellie in the place,So doth the Bridegroome hast as much,Being told this starre is falne, and findes her such.And as friends may looke strange,By a new fashion, or apparrells change,Their soules, though long acquainted they had beene,These clothes, their bodies, never yet had seene;Therefore at first shee modestly might start,But must forthwith surrender every part,As freely, as each to each before, gave either eye or heart.
Words in this poem
- starre n.
- One of the innumerable luminous bodies seen in the heavens; any heavenly body other than the sun, moon, comets, and nebulæ. [OE. sterre, AS. steorra; akin to OFries. stera, OS. sterro, D. ster, OHG. sterno, sterro, G. stern, Icel. stjarna, Sw. stjerna, Dan. stierne, Goth. staírno, Arm]
- apace adv.
- With a quick pace; quick; fast; speedily. [Pref. a- + pace. OE. a pas at a walk, in which a is the article. See Pace.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- modestly adv.
- In a modest manner.
- forthwith adv.
- Immediately; without delay; directly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bridegroomes comming is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Donne, The Bridegroomes comming, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/the-bridegroomes-comming.html, id L19893.
Form and metre
The Bridegroomes comming is 11 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 91% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDEEE apaceA · placeA · muchB · suchB · strangeC · changeC · beeneD · seeneD · startE · partE · heartE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| As he that sees a starre fall, runs apace, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And findes a gellie in the place, | 8 | ········ |
| So doth the Bridegroome hast as much, | 9 | ········· |
| Being told this starre is falne, and findes her such. | 10 | /········· |
| And as friends may looke strange, | 6 | ······ |
| By a new fashion, or apparrells change, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Their soules, though long acquainted they had beene, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| These clothes, their bodies, never yet had seene; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Therefore at first shee modestly might start, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| But must forthwith surrender every part, | 10 | ··//˘/˘/˘· |
| As freely, as each to each before, gave either eye or heart. | 15 | ·/˘·······/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.